International Women's Day.

Today is International Woman's Day.

The first International Women's Day was observed on 28 February 1909 in the United States. Among other relevant historic events, it came to commemorate the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. The idea of having an international women's day was first put forward at the turn of the 20th century amid rapid world industrialization and economic expansion that led to protests over working conditions.

The holiday, which began as a political event blends in the culture of many countries (primarily Russia and the countries of the former Soviet bloc). In some celebrations, the day has lost it policitical flavour and has simply become an occation for men to express their love to the women around them in a way somewhat similar to Mother's Day and Valentine's Day mixed together.

That is where today comes in. S, one of my new co-workers made cakes for each of us girls on the team. It was totally unexpected and quite thrilling. We do not often get cake in a sweet, fluffy and iced form (like you would expect in America) so it was a splendid treat. S brought the cakes to us at church this morning and we spent the entire walk home speculating what kind of cake it was (chocolate, yellow, spice, etc.). My roommate M and I tasted ours directly upon walking into the door at home. It was just as delicious as imagined. He even decorated it with the Cyrillic letter Ж (je) which stands for the Russian word for "female" ЖЕНЩИНА (jen-schen-na).

Thanks for thinking of us on International Women's Day.